Drone Owners Register
There seems to be a growing sense that regulations will soon be in place for all drone users. This week, the House of Lords in the UK have called for some sort of register to be created for all drone users. Primarily, this will be for commercial users only (professional aerial photographers, area mappers) but this regulation will likely soon apply to hobbyists as well. It is also likely that all drone will have to go through a safety check in order for you to fly them. In a sense these sort of regulations are necessary, but where do we draw the line between being sensible with UAVs and damaging this emerging the market? This is an important question that needs to be answered in the coming months. Meanwhile, the BBC Click team put three drones through their paces (the DJI Inspire 1, the AirDog and the Hexo +).
Mapping a giant volcano
So last week on Drone Weekly, we posted a video about a 3D rendering of Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro but this week the drone community have gone even further. This article and video explains and shows the 3D rendering of an active volcano done with a DJI Phantom equipped with a GoPro 4. Obviously, humans have never been able to get close enough to properly survey an active volcano and so the introduction of drones into this field is priceless. This rendering included mapping an area as deep as the Empire State building is tall, and an area that can comfortable fit a football pitch inside. Impressive - and hints at the huge range of applications of drones with a camera attached.
Drone police chase in Paris
Maybe not the most breaking of news, but since October there has been more than 60 illegal drone flights over Paris. There is currently a zero tolerance of drone flying at night over the city and only those with a licence can fly during the day. Several sighting of drones have been reported in the last few months and the latest viewing was from a police officer on Tuesday this week. A chase ensued with the drone but they lost it due to the traffic in the area. The police are now looking for four men who were believed to recover the drone and flee in a black car on a Paris ring road. Also on Tuesday, an Al-Jazeera was fined £725 for flying a drone in the Bois de Boulogne park but this is considered unrelated to the previous incident.
Anti Drone Force-field
A German startup has developed a wifi jamming device that blocks all wifi-connected surveillance devices, including some drones like the DJI Phantom. Since wifi runs on 2.4Ghz, I assume that this will also be able to jam R/C Radios. You can read more about it here
Drones the next big thing in wedding photography?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/innovations/wp/2015/02/24/drones-the-next-big-thing-in-wedding-photography-or-a-tacky-intrusion/
What do you think about this? All it reminds me of is this fail video of this dumb pilot.
Are small drones really a thread to aircraft?
This week @Sam shared an interesting article about a safety study report that was recently published that looked at how dangerous small drones are to aircraft to help with rule making policies.
Future of the Drone Market?
Marcelo Ballve from Business Insider has some comments on the commercial drone market, and the main applications will be in agriculture, energy, utilities, mining, construction, real estate, news media, and film production. As as you could guess regulations will plays an important role.
Awesome Star Wars Inspired Drones
Earlier this week I also shared some pics of some cool star wars inspired quadcopter that where built by Oliver_C over on RC_Groups
Wildlife Bridge as seen from a drone
It looks like a bridge from a fantasy world. The grassy structure is a green overpass, the only one of its kind in Latin America, designed to connect wildlife populations and habitats that have been separated by a road. Built in 2010 in the Misiones province of Argentina, it is also meant to reduce roadkill. You can read more here
Drone Overboard!
Perceptiv SHIFT - vision based tracking for your drone
An $800 tracking system that allows you to track objects visually with your drone. You can learn more about it here
Small drone emergency landing system
Unmanned aircraft researchers have made what’s believed to be a world-first breakthrough for small unmanned aircraft under 20 kilograms, developing an automated emergency landing system (AELS) that has enabled the aircraft to land on its its own. Read more here
Add your own stories
Did we forget something? If you know of any other interesting news articles, videos or stories from the last week just add them below to share with the community!